In the course of doing an interview for the Christian Science Sentinel recently, I talked with a woman who has been finding that her own strong, evangelical faith enables her to work very effectively with young people. She spoke about the increased demands of the times on people who would live by spiritual inspiration and said quite straightforwardly, "The things that used to keep us spiritually twenty-five years ago will not keep us today. ... So we have to work harder to have a relationship spiritually."
Christian Scientists, too, need to be honest with one another, not always attempting merely to be soothingly positive. Occasionally, we may offer to each other examples of such smiling and apparently flawless fortitude that they have the unintended effect of adding to people's secret discouragement. Such apparently "perfect" appearances may make some people wonder, What's wrong with me? I haven't always succeeded in being totally fearless and poised. Why am I finding it hard going when everyone else is doing just fine?
Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered and founded Christian Science, did not encourage anyone in the illusion that consistently living by the Spirit can be accomplished casually, with only one hand, so to speak. She writes, "Only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful."Miscellaneous Writings, p. 340.
